George Henry Thomas

George Henry Thomas (31 July 1816-28 March 1870) was a Major-General of the US Army who commanded the Army of the Cumberland during the American Civil War. Thomas, nicknamed "the Rock of Chickamauga", was one of the greatest generals of the war, but his humility and his rivalry with Ulysses S. Grant led to him not getting enough credit for his prowess.

Biography
George Henry Thomas was born in Newsom's Depot, Southampton County, Virginia in 1816, and he witnessed the Nat Turner Rebellion at a young age; the rebellion led to him becoming a fierce opponent of slavery. He graduated from West Point in 1840, befriending William T. Sherman while he was at school. He served in Florida during the wars with the Seminoles, in the Mexican-American War, and in the wars with the Comanche on the Great Plains, earning his only war wound when he was wounded in the chin by a Comanche arrow on 26 August 1860.

Civil War
When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Thomas' US 2nd Cavalry superiors Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, and William J. Hardee resigned their commands, but Thomas was convinced to fight for the Union by his northern-born wife, causing for his family to turn his pictures around, burn his letters, and ignore him for the rest of his life. J.E.B. Stuart, a fellow Virginian, claimed that he wanted to hang Thomas for being a traitor to his state. On 3 May 1861, Thomas was promoted to colonel, and he rose to Brigadier-General in August after fighting at Bull Run. Thomas was sent to the Western theater to command an independent force under General Robert Anderson in Kentucky, and he defeated George B. Crittenden and Felix Zollicoffer at Mill Springs in January 1862. His victory broke Confederate control over eastern Kentucky and was the first important Union victory of the war, lifting Union morale. He became a divisional commander of Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio, fighting at Shiloh, and he served as Buell's second-in-command at Perryville in 1862.